Live from London it’s… Monday?
Fact: I have been in London for a month. Fact: It is getting warmer and I am beginning to feel more and more like a local. Fact: I am starting to call London my home!
It seems like it has been ages since my last blog post because, well, it has! So much has happened within the past couple weeks that I don’t even know where to begin telling my adventures (I’ll attempt to do them justice!)!
In the past couple weeks I have been to both Portobello and Camden Markets, I have been to M&M’s World London, and I have finally attended my first play production here in London. All of which were amazing.
First let me tell you about the markets. They are crazy! We need some in Chicago! There are people everywhere trying to get the best bargains on all of the merchandise being sold at random booths. The owners of each booth are quite pushy, as every time you even eye one of the dresses (there are multiple dress booths, that all sell the same dresses) they come up to you and tell you you should take it for “only 15 pounds.” 15 pounds is equivalent to about $25… not exactly the best deal when the material is quite thin and the dresses are very small. My friend Kathryn was looking through the dresses at one booth and one of the owners came up to her and she promptly turned to me and said “watch how it’s done.” She bargained with him for 5 minutes and got him to give her two dresses for 22 pounds, a really good deal considering the dresses were marked as 15 pounds each!
M&M’s World London is perhaps one of my favorite places I’ve been to so far. I know it is very touristy, but after all, I am a tourist, just one who is staying for over 4 months! When you’re walking on the street you can smell the chocolate! It’s every chocoholic’s dream! When you walk in the store, you are instantly surrounded with various M&M merchandise, plus buckets upon buckets of colorful M&Ms. There were pretty many people in the store, but the store was so big, it had multiple levels and different “M&M rooms” like the green M&M was described as a “princess M&M” and thus they had girly things in the green M&M room. There was even a scale looking object that you would step on and it would tell you what M&M color you would be and why. The line was pretty long so I didn’t participate, but I would imagine I would be blue because after all, blue is the best M&M ;).
This past weekend, I saw my very first play production and I have to say it was pretty neat. I saw “She Stoops to Conquer” with Kathryn and my new roommate Sophie (yes, in these past two weeks I have gotten a roommate!). It must have been a popular play to see because it was completely sold out. We sat in the second row on the right hand side of the stage. We were so close to the stage! The acting was superb and the play was interesting (this means if you’re ever in London, you should see it :)).
I also went to the Museum of London with my history of Victorian London class. All of the artifacts were very interesting, especially the Victorian London part. Apparently people used to go on “Garden Walks” every sunday and they would dress up with crazy dresses and would wear unique hats, to say the least. After that a couple girls from my class and me went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which again was breathtaking. It was surreal to see St. Paul’s Cathedral surrounded by the Occupy London movement. There were so many tents surrounding the cathedral and there were also many policeman just watching the protestors. This Occupy movement made the Occupy Chicago movement look miniscule.
I’ll admit that for the first couple of weeks, I was feeling homesick, but now it seems my homesickness has disappeared. I still miss everyone from home, but I am starting to call London my home as well.
This coming weekend I am finally going to Paris with a couple friends! I’m sure it will be beautiful and a lot of fun! I’ll take numerous pictures and keep you updated on how it goes!
Cheers from London!